1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing device and method. More particularly, the present invention relates to the image processing device and method which generate a display image to be displayed in case of executing, by using data generated from generated design data, a verification operation for the design data in a real space.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, design and verification operations which use virtual data are executed on a computer system in design and manufacture fields. More specifically, in the procedure of the design and verification operations, basic designing is first executed on a three-dimensional CAD (Computer Aided Design) system. Typically, when a shape, a figure and the like of a target are designed by using the three-dimensional CAD system, the designed data is generally stored as the solid data which is inherent in the relevant three-dimensional CAD system.
Then, based on the data designed by the relevant three-dimensional CAD system, an analysis process or a CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) process is executed to verify the validation of the designed data. Thus, the problems such as a heat radiation problem, a pressure deformation problem and the like which generally occur when actual products are used are previously extracted at the stage of virtual data, and it considers how to cope with these problems.
Moreover, in order to simultaneously verify operability, maintenance performance and assembly performance of the product which is designed by the three-dimensional CAD system, a simple production prototype (i.e., a mockup) or an actual production prototype is created by using an aluminum material and a resin foam material in a rapid prototyping method or the like. For this reason, the design data of the mockup is created and generated based on the data designed by the three-dimensional CAD system. For example, such an operation is clearly disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-107968.
In practice, the problem of the current design data is clarified by actually executing design review or a DMR (Digital Mockup Review) process for the real thing and the virtual data, and the clarified problem is fed back on the design, whereby the quality of the product data is improved. In such an operation, the data concerning the mockup and the CAE process are positively used.
In recent years, attempts at making zero or reducing as much as possible the number of times of experimental production in the flow of the design operation are positively executed. That is, by decreasing the number of times of experimental production, the proportion of the number of production prototypes in the development cost of the products can be reduced. In consequence, the quality of the product can be maintained even under the situation that the production prototype cannot be made a number of times because, for example, the product to be developed is a single item, or the product to be developed is the product which is produced through the large item small volume production. Moreover, by shortening an experimental period, it is possible to execute the design operation capable of corresponding to an early product development cycle. To achieve this, it is necessary to provide the system which verifies all the necessary data in a virtual space without producing an actual production prototype, by maximally using the design data, the data derived from the relevant design data and concerning the CAE process, and the measured data.
However, in such a design system, the different dedicated information processing application has been developed and is used for each of the designing process by the CAD system, the CAE process, the mockup production process, the data measurement processes necessary for the above processes, and a design review process. For this reason, in the present circumstances, each of the dedicated information processing applications independently executes the data management. Consequently, for example, in the design review, the three-dimensional CAD data and the information processing applications (for the DMR process, the CAE process, the mockup production operation, etc.) derived from the CAD data cannot be integrally managed and displayed. For this reason, in the attempts at making zero or reducing as much as possible the number of times of experimental production, it is greatly impeded to execute the verification operation wholly in the virtual space.
Moreover, since the data management cannot integrally be executed, the following problems occur.    (1) In the method of producing the simple production prototype (i.e., the simple mockup) by a rapid prototyping device or the like, it is effective to grasp a rough shape due to restrictions such as machining accuracy, materials and the like. However, in this method, the detailed information which represents the details of a design, the details of a shape, colors and the like, and is designed on the three-dimensional CAD system cannot be reproduced.    (2) Even in the attempts at making zero or reducing as much as possible the number of times of experimental production, the necessity for actually producing the production prototype and the mockup is not completely gone in the present circumstances. For this reason, in a case where the production prototype or the mockup is actually produced, if the designed data is corrected as a result of the design review, the production prototype or the mockup which is actually produced is different from that defined by the designed data, whereby data inconsistency occurs.    (3) In the process of the design review, in a case where the design data being virtual data is superposed on the formed mockup, the process of superposing the virtual data on the image data of the mockup which was taken by a video camera is executed. However, since the video image is two-dimensional, a concealment problem occurs between the video image data and the three-dimensional virtual data.